About

$44,538

pledged of $9,750 goal

658

backers

Everyone wants to belong, and everyone wants a sense of home.

At Geek Bar, we're giving Chicago a place to commune and celebrate our love for geek culture in all its forms. A home in this city full of geeks! Geek Bar will be your sanctuary where you and your friends can gather to relax after a long day. We'll be a warm, inviting space that will set you instantly at ease, immersed in geek culture and surrounded by like-minded folks. From science to science-fiction, fantasy to technology, geeks of all stripes will find Geek Bar to be a space that suits their unique needs.

David Zoltan was first an entrepreneur as a hobby game store owner in the Metro Detroit area. He sold that business for a profit to move to Chicago. He is a marketing pro, having graduated from Michigan State in marketing and Carnegie Mellon with a masters specialized in marketing and fundraising for the performing arts. He organizes a 1,500+ person gaming meetup, Chicago Game Lovers, running events in bars and game stores across the Chicagoland area. His claim to fame as an entrepreneur was creating a culture for gamers at the game store he owned where people felt comfortable, could count on great events and a warm environment, and fly their geek flag high. He developed the community that supported the game store by devoting the vast majority of the space at his game store to play space, using leagues, tournaments, and other events where gamers of the local neighborhood could come to be a part of gaming culture every day of the week.

Matt Wolff -- Chief Marketing Officer

Matt is a native Chicagoan and relentless gamer, writer, and geek. An absolute tour de force in avant garde marketing and promotions, having worked in and around geek culture for almost two decades, his understanding of geeks is second to none. He has led marketing initiatives for several technology companies and has held titles ranging from manager to director. Matt currently heads up marketing, social media, and outreach initiatives for the Chicago Game Lovers organization.
His passion and drive for promoting geek culture gives any project he takes on a unique, authentic voice that sets him apart from the rest of the nerd herd.

Tom Kern -- Executive Director of Cuisine

Chef Tom's experience includes five star/diamond resorts such as the Vinoy in St. Petersburg; Ashville, North Carolina's famed Inn at Biltmore Estate; and the Ritz Carlton Naples, Fl. Resort. He founded and runs BadHappy Poutine Shop, widely held as serving some of the best food in Chicago. Chef Tom plans on bringing his unique spin on comfort food to Geek Bar, utilizing his love for modern, sui generis technique applied to gastropub-style food.

Chef Tom brings 23 years of restaurant experience and an unmatched geeky passion for food that will create an outstanding experience for patrons of Geek Bar.

From our founder, Zoltan: "On August 22nd, 2012, they announced the new season of Doctor Who, and I thought to myself 'Where can I go to watch Doctor Who with other Whovians across Chicago?' After all, you can throw a stone down any street in Chicago and hit a half-dozen faux Irish bars and sports bars, but there's no place for the nerds and dorks and dweebs of Chicago to feel at home, to see the things they want to watch on the screens, to celebrate who they are. So that's our ongoing mission: To celebrate geekdom in all its forms.

"Having founded and run a game store up in Detroit for three and a half years and run geek events around Chicago for years, I've discovered a great deal about what geeks like and don't like about your average bar. Geeks want a space where the volume isn't loud so that they can talk, not shout directly into their fellow geek's ear. We want to see Jean-Luc Picard, Iron Man, and other geek heroes on the screens. We want tables large enough to play games on or to put our laptops and iPads on comfortably instead of perched precariously around our food and beer. We want to see parts of our culture represented in the decor and the special events going on in the space. That's what Geek Bar is going to be."

Behind the culinary vision of Chef Tom, we'll feature an amazing menu of elevated, playful, geek-themed gastropub cuisine served alongside masterfully crafted cocktails and local craft beers. Our menu will feature appetizers, entrees, soups, and salads but the crowning jewel will be highly customizable, sharable menu items called Companions made to order by the piece, like tapas, and shared with your friends.

At Geek Bar, we want geeks from every walk of life to feel welcome, and it's because of that we're making sure we feature items that address the dietary and lifestyle requirements of our guests. From vegan and vegetarian options, to gluten-free and soy-free choices too, we'll have something for everyone so that you feel at home at Geek Bar. Because at Geek Bar, you belong.

SCIENCE! Bar & Binary Bar

We intend for Geek Bar to be a warm, inviting space where you'll feel instantly at home. With long, communal tables and lots of creature comforts, from TVs to plentiful outlets.

One artist's rendition of a typical Geek Bar day! Communal tables great for gaming or working on projects, TVs showing great geeky shows, and even chandeliers with hanging action figures!

We also plan to have two themed bars in different sections at Geek Bar - SCIENCE! Bar and Binary Bar.

SCIENCE! Bar

SCIENCE! Bar will feature bartenders in lab coats. Smoking drinks and cocktails that blur the line between science fiction and reality. Mad scientists have taken control of the bar and it's the geeks of Chicago that will reap the benefits! SCIENCE! Bar within Geek Bar will be a fun, playful space where SCIENCE! rules.

Binary Bar

At Binary Bar you can follow us down the rabbit hole to a place where mathemagical theory and mysterious fringers unite. Binary Bar within Geek Bar will be our sophisticated, sharp take on a future in cyberspace, where bits and bytes rule. With cutting edge cocktails and dark, cool decor.

(We made our 1st stretch goal, the cards will be PERSONALIZED!)

We plan on treating all our guests like geek royalty, but we're saving some really special things for our regulars and those that see themselves making a home at Geek Bar. It's for this reason that we've designed the GeekFleet Very Important Geek (V.I.G.) program. For a low annual fee, you'll rise in the ranks of GeekFleet enjoying fantastic benefits from day one. The more you spend, the faster you'll ascend seeing more and more perks out of the program. And at the $50 WIZARD level, you get a Kickstarter-only card that will get you even extra benefits every month! Here are the ranks and a sample of the benefits we're planning for its launch:

Everyone has to start somewhere, right? Being a n00b is nothing to be ashamed of, since even as a n00b you'll enjoy a discount on your bill, exclusive access to GeekFleet special events, and your own V.I.G. card to show the world you're a revered geek at Geek Bar!

As a Lab Rat, you'll see all the perks of being a n00b, but with the added bonus of a free drink every year on your birthday. And who says scientific experimentation is a waste of time!

Membership has its benefits! Evil Minions will enjoy everything Lab Rats enjoy, but having risen further up in the ranks you'll also have full access to our game library without any rental costs! The best and newest games at your fingertips with no cost to you!

Code Monkey like Geek Bar! Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew. Code Monkey see all benefits from Evil Minion but also Code Monkey get free birthday dinner on Geek Bar's tab every year! And added to that Code Monkey get exclusive pre-sale access to Geek Bar special event tickets!

It's good to be the boss. The Mad Scientist gets everything the Code Monkey gets but with a VERY valuable addition in our Geek Bar Concierge service. Mad Scientists can reserve tables up to a week in advance, they can reserve board games to be ready when they come in, and more.

Geek Bar is slated to open in March 2014 in or near the Lakeview area or possibly even sooner with enough support from the community and continued investor momentum! Your contributions will directly help us create this space.

We've raised the initial money through equity funding to get a basic bar, but we need your help to geek it out properly. Every dollar you contribute will be another dollar of geekdom that we add to the bar.
We are looking for a start of $9,750 to be spent on geeking out Geek Bar. We will be focusing initially on how we dine in the form of custom tables and what we watch in the form of licensing for the shows and movies we want to show on the TVs. In the end, this will add to our other efforts, including equity investors and sponsorships, to get us to our ideal goal to open the bar of $500,000.

As a show of how important you are to geeking out Geek Bar, every tier will include a unique Geek Flag sticker in the theme of the Chicago flag (shown below) that you can autograph and affix to a special community support wall at Geek Bar. Your permanent addition to the space we're all building together.

One way or another, with or without your support, we're opening by March 2014. But you have the power to make Geek Bar truly amazing right from the start with your contribution.

Custom tables - $6,000

We are commissioning local Chicago furniture designers to create custom gaming tables for the space. These are not your typical tables, not by a long shot. Our patrons should eat, drink, and play on tables as unique as Chicago's amazing geek culture. It's for that reason that we're having communal gaming tables built. High-quality, 24 feet long, extra wide tables made from reclaimed wood and iron that can seat up to 12 per side with special features our gaming patrons will surely appreciate, from the wide width to accommodate board games to swivel-out trays to keep food out of the way of your dice. It's these little touches that will speak to the geeks of Chicago!

To thank you for your help with these tables, we have a special limited slot at $200 for 40 contributors to have their names engraved on plates that will be on the two tables we fund through Kickstarter!

Licensing and media - $3,750

At Geek Bar, we plan on being a focal point for the geek community in Chicago. Geeks love TV and film, so we owe it to our customers to have the ability to show their favorite shows and movies any given night of the week! We will be buying broadcast rights from several studios including Disney, New Line Entertainment, Paramount, and Fox to ensure we are properly licensed to show classics from Star Trek to Doctor Who, The Avengers to Lord of the Rings. And so many more! In addition, we'll be purchasing a media library, so that you'll never be without geeky entertainment when you visit.

Our initial goal represents one year of once-per-week movie nights at the bar. When you walk in, we'll be playing Aliens or Wreck-It Ralph on the TV while you enjoy the amazing food, insane cocktails, and the company of your fellow geeks.

We don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but we have some amazing stretch goals planned out for this Kickstarter campaign. While our tables and media library will truly be epic and make Geek Bar a warm, inviting space for Chicago's geeks to congregate, we have a great vision for the space that we'd love to see realized.

STRETCH GOAL ACHIEVED! WIZARD SUPPORTERS GET A CUSTOMIZED CARD!

At $20,000 we will do several things. First we will be able to afford licensing for another movie night every week, so we'd have TWO instead of one! Also we'll be able to upgrade our televisions to larger, crisper displays to show those movies as well as all our other great programming. We'll also be able to expand our board game library to give you more options and the latest, greatest games.

At $40,000, we're going to bring in a professional sound engineer to create a custom solution and make Geek Bar a technological masterpiece in acoustics. From sound dampening fixtures to expertly tuned audio, we'll make sure your experience at Geek Bar will be an aural experience like no other. So that no matter what you're doing at Geek Bar, you won't be interrupted by excess noise from elsewhere.

Stretch goal #2 Supporter Bonus: We'll add a new KILLER CYBORG reward level at $79 that will assimilate you into part of our gaming collective! You'll get an exclusive invitation to play your favorite games with the Geek Bar founders! We're gaming experts and pretty darn fun to game with if we say so ourselves. Plus, you'll get everything at the WIZARD level too.

At $70,000, we're going to pay the iron price and purchase a replica Iron Throne from Game of Thrones for our Chef's Table! Sold exclusively through HBO, this throne is carved from a solid piece of fiberglass and painted to be an exact replica. It'll be available for photo ops and, of course, for those that dine at our exclusive Chef's Table. A Lannister always pays their debts, and you'll always want to sit on this throne.

Stretch goal #3 Supporter Bonus: We'll add a new reward level at $1337 that lets you be SUPREME RULER of Geek Bar Chicago for a day!
You'll sit on the Iron Throne, select the entertainment on our TVs from our media library, decide what drink is on special that day, and let Chef Tom know what your favorite dish is so that he can riff on it for you and serve it as the food special of the day. All in addition to everything at the OLYMPIAN level.

We have more stretch goals in mind too, but we'll announce those as we achieve the ones above.

ADD-ON: FLIPPING AWESOME - This $50 add-on to any level is an invitation to come and flip a table. We'll set up the board game of your choice and other choice tangibles on a small, flippable table and video you while you flip it! Then we'll post it to Facebook and YouTube, and you'll have lasting proof of how much of a rage-quitting bad-ass you are.

Help us make our vision a reality! Geek Bar will be a true communal effort, bringing together the disparate geek culture groups from the city, and providing a shared space to eat, to drink, and to gather - together. Chicago truly needs Geek Bar, and Geek Bar truly needs you.

Because at Geek Bar, you belong.

Risks and challenges

Our biggest challenge once we get started is managing the licensing process of the city and the build-out of the space to keep on deadline. We have the power of one of the best realty groups in town behind us to help us navigate that process efficiently, and we have a number of consultants and allies on call that have gone through this process before. We're in the process of hiring an attorney that specializes in working with the city of Chicago's liquor licensing process.

Once we open, we will need to maintain quality standards including serving times and events that speak to the geeks out there that want to make this bar their home away from home. We have extensive event experience and will be using state-of-the-art tracking systems in the form of a specialized point-of-sale system designed to manage restaurant operations and give real-time reports to ensure that we're meeting the needs of our customers. We'll be using this same system to monitor operations to ensure top-quality service in the industry.

Support

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Pledge US$ 10 or more
About US$ 10

Friend of Geek Bar™ -
You'll receive one of our Geek Flag stickers in the style of the Chicago city flag to autograph and affix to our designated community support wall in the bar. You'll have a permanent presence in Geek Bar to show the world that you support our efforts!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 42 or more
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HOOPY FROOD of Geek Bar™ - This is perfect for the out-of-towner or someone looking for a unique souvenir from Geek Bar! You'll get your Geek Flag sticker, your Geek Bar Chicago t-shirt, AND a copy of our opening day menu signed by Geek Bar's founders, Zoltan and Matt, as well as Chef Tom!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 50 or more
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WIZARD Friend of Geek Bar™ -

You are a geek admired by all your peers. You get everything from the MYTHIC level, PLUS you'll get an exclusive KickStarter Supporter GeekFleet V.I.G. (Very Important Geek) Card with a year's membership at the entry level! See the main text for more information on GeekFleet.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 79 or more
About US$ 79

KILLER CYBORG of Geek Bar™ - We will assimilate you into part of our gaming collective! You'll get an exclusive invitation to play your favorite games with the Geek Bar founders! We're gaming experts and pretty darn fun to game with if we say so ourselves. Pizza, drinks, and gaming for a night! Plus, you get everything at the WIZARD level too.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 100 or more
About US$ 100

GENIUS Friend of Geek Bar™ -

You are a geek to behold! You get everything from the WIZARD level, and a CUSTOMIZED, embroidered lab coat with your name and the Geek Bar logo! Plus 5 extra Geek Flag stickers to show your geek pride far and wide.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 100 or more
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ORBITAL ROCKSTAR! - How's the view from up there? This is the ultimate out-of-towner reward level, giving you everything from the other $100 GENIUS only instead of a year of GeekFleet you get the signed opening day menu from the HOOPY FROOD level. So you'll get the 5 stickers, t-shirt, embroidered lab coat AND menu! Take THAT, everyone stuck on this rock!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 150 or more
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CYBERPUNK Friend of Geek Bar™ - To celebrate Geek Bar we'll be filming a live episode of Beer & Board Games with Blame Society Productions, the creators of CHAD VADER! At this exclusive $150 level we will do a shot in your honor during the episode for the world to see! In addition, you'll get all the rewards of the GENIUS level!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 250 or more
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BARON Friend of Geek Bar™ - The ULTIMATE out-of-towner level. We're all out of KNIGHTED Friend of Geek Bar™ spots but we're opening up a select few spots on our regular tables for an inscribed plaque! Be a Baron and get everything from our ORBITAL ROCKSTAR level, and add your name to a plaque on one of our regular diner tables! Substitute GENIUS level for ORBITAL level rewards at no cost.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 314 or more
About US$ 314

PI Lover - Mmm, pi. Everybody loves pi. Here's your chance to have a private dinner with Zoltan, Matt, and Chef Tom at BadHappy Poutine Shop and pitch all of your craziest ideas about what you want to see at Geek Bar to the crew. You'll have a captive audience, amazing food, and yes, pie. Plus everything at the GENIUS level as well.

Kickstarter is not a store.

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BLAZING Friend of Geek Bar™ - Paper burns at 451º Fahrenheit, but how hot would it be to spend an afternoon with Chef Tom as he does R&D for our menu, seeing how he operates, and taste-testing some of our amazing dishes? At this level, you'll work with us to find the right time and date and get time with our Executive Director of Cuisine, plus everything at the GENIUS level.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 500 or more
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OLYMPIAN Friend of Geek Bar™ - The very exclusive $500 level will get you everything listed in the GENIUS tier and an invitation to our VIP private launch party, the week before Geek Bar's public launch. See the completed Geek Bar before anyone else, and enjoy a geeky soiree unlike any you've ever experienced before.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 600 or more
About US$ 600

SHINY Friend of Geek Bar™ - Attend our VIP party with the added bragging rights of having your name inscribed on our BAR! We will have room for 10 plaques on our main bar and your name can be on it! This includes everything from the OLYMPIAN level as well.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 1,000 or more
About US$ 1,000

IMMORTAL Friend of Geek Bar™ - Be immortalized on our menu! We will dedicate one of Geek Bar Chicago's menu items or drinks in your honor. Your dedication will remain on the menu for at least the first year we're open. You'll get everything from the OLYMPIAN Friend of Geek Bar™ level too.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 2,000 or more
About US$ 2,000

SUPERHERO Birthday Club -
Birthday Dinners at the Chef's Table for Life. Everything in the OLYMPIAN Friend of Geek Bar™ level. Plus, you and a guest will get a personalized chef's menu tasting every year on us, redeemable anytime during the month of your birthday. What goes on in there is between you, your guest, the chefs, and probably Q. That guy is everywhere.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 200 or more
About US$ 200

KNIGHTED Friend of Geek Bar™ - Just as each of Arthur's knights had a spot at the Round Table, this exclusive $200 level is to secure your name on one of our custom communal gaming tables. These awesome oak tables will be the crowning glory to our space where our customers will gather to game, laugh, and share in their love of geek culture! Plus everything from the GENIUS level!